Review Summary: Oh, and by the way, it's Sylar, not good music
What happened? Just a few years ago, Sylar released
Help! and really showed some great potential, finally developing their sound that they had been searching for for quite some time. But now,
Seasons really throws away the potential and resorts to a safe, radio-friendly sound. Their third full-length still continues the same sound as before: hard hitting metalcore instrumentals mixed with dynamic harsh and clean vocals hinted with some rap-influence. However, there are even more mainstream, quiet moments filled with lackluster rapping and boring melodies. Sure, there are quite a few catchy, heavy moments sprinkled about here, but they are hindered by surface-level lyrics and below-average vocal performance.
Much like their previous records, Sylar's strengths lie in the wake of the metalcore instrumentals that remain rather dominant. Here, they do have a much more alternative, watered-down tone, but the aggressive sounds of their previous records do provide fun moments throughout the record. The occasional breakdowns really do pack a punch in songs like "Wait For You" and "Same Dance" while some of the song intros, as in "All or Nothing", create a chaotic, intense atmosphere, which is sadly deceptive compared to the rest of the tracks. When not showing aggression, Sylar promotes a rather dull poppy sound. "Seasons" allows for what could have been a fun, heavy song, but it gets interrupted by an over-produced hip-hop verse overlaid by vocals that have almost no flow over the groove. Almost in the same way, "Shook!" contains some decent instrumentals in the chorus, but it is truly diminished by the rap-dominant verse in between that just lacks the same power found in Sylar's previous rap attempts. Of course, the mainstream tonality really leaves this album rather average, but the lyrical themes and performance takes it further under.
The duo rapper/screamer and clean vocals have generally benefited Sylar in the past, but not here.
Seasons tries too hard to emphasize the rapping by trying to incorporate a lot more pop beats within. What they fail to realize is that the raps worked really well when in the midst of absolute metalcore ferocity; now, they just fall flat and bland. The cleans, on the other side of the spectrum, are fairly decent, but often sound monotonous and repetitive, as if the all of the songs use the same exact melodies and harmonies. To further take this to another level of uninspired material, all of the lyrics tend to fall short of deep, not even scratching the surface. Lines like
"This is all or nothing/It's now or never, go on take your shot" and
"You know we got you/Shook" show no depth of meaning, simply there to provide some vocals to a song that was already uninspired in the first place.
Yes,
Seasons can be summed up with the word 'uninspired' but this doesn't apply to every aspect of the album. "Same Dance", the highlight of the album, shows what could have been. The instrumentals, vocals, and even lyrics are similar to "Assume" from
Help!, showing the aggressive side that should have been the prominent feature of this album. However, this diamond in the rough can't do enough to persuade one to enjoy this album. Sylar ruined their potential and ran their music to the ground. There are some moments of enjoyment here, but overall, the album just fails to convey the same potential they had in their previous efforts. I guess they were right about one thing, Sylar definitely has me shook! Shook by how bad this actually ended up being.
